


Someone has to lose

by chick_with_wifi



Category: Batman (Comics), Birds of Prey (Comic), DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)
Genre: Background Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-14 03:00:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17500301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chick_with_wifi/pseuds/chick_with_wifi
Summary: “No. I refuse to let him hurt any more people.” She put her glasses back on and turned so she could look at him. “Dick…I’m going to kill the Joker.”





	Someone has to lose

_Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace ~ Oscar Wilde_

 

“So you know that new coffee shop downtown,” Dick began. He was sitting cross-legged on a bench in the Clocktower gym and eating a bowl of cereal.

“Yeah,” Barbara replied. She was positioned beneath a bar mounted to a metal frame and using it to do chin ups. Half of her attention was focussed on listening to him and the other half was on her workout.

“You’ll never guess what happened to me then I was there the other day. I’ve been there before a few times -”

“I’m not surprised -” she said as she pulled herself into another chin up. “All police...seem to have...coffee instead...of blood.” She let go of the bar and dropped into her chair, then grabbed a towel to wipe her face.

“Very funny,” Dick said. “But I’m serious about this weird thing that happened. I was waiting in line about to order and guess what? The person in front of me orders the exact same thing that I was about to and gets the last muffin!”

“So weird,” she deadpanned.

“No, I haven’t got to the weird part yet.”

“My bad, carry on.”

“Then this person turns around and sees me in uniform and is like, oh did you want this muffin? I say yes, because obviously I want a muffin. Then they gave me their muffin! For free! And said - and I quote - ‘go make Blüdhaven a safer place’. Can you believe it?”

“That’s so sweet of them.” 

One of her computers chimed and Barbara’s stomach lurched. She knew that signal and it could only mean one thing: something very bad was happening. She rolled over to her workstation as quickly as she could and pulled up the article that had set off the alarm.

“What’s that?” Dick asked as he came up behind her.

“That’s my alert for any and all things relating to the Joker. I keep tabs on him at all times in case he...oh heck.” Her eyes rapidly flicked back and forth as she read the news story. “He escaped from Arkham again.”

Dick cursed and ran a hand through his hair.

“And it gets worse. He managed to get access to ingredients to make some sort of airborne Joker toxin, which he used on the guards. That’s how he escaped. Unfortunately, he miscalculated the dosage because none of them survived. Before the last one died he managed to tell someone what the Joker had said about it. Namely that he plans to use it on all of Gotham.”

She took off her glasses and buried her face in her hands. “This is exactly like something out of my nightmares. And believe me, I’ve had a lot featuring him.”

“Babs…” Dick placed a gentle hand on her shoulder but she shrugged away and he reluctantly removed it.

“No. I refuse to let him hurt any more people.” She put her glasses back on and turned so she could look at him. “Dick…I’m going to kill the Joker.”

He pulled up a chair and sat down next to her, taking both her hands in his. “Babs, please just stop and think about this.”

“I _have_ thought about this. Hell, I’ve thought about nothing but killing that monster for days on end. Even more so after Jason died. That was when I swore to myself that I’d never let him destroy another life. Now the time has come for me to act on that.” 

Dick was silent for a moment, then said, “Who am I talking to right now: Barbara or Oracle?”

“There isn’t a difference,” she said quietly.

“I’m pretty sure there is. You’re one of if not the most powerful person on the planet and you’re going to tell me that hasn’t affected you at all? The Barbara I know would never do something like this. But Oracle? I have no idea what she would do.”

She pulled her hands away and moved her chair backwards. “You think I want it to be this way? As Oracle I make the hard decisions that you and the other bats are too afraid to. I focus on the facts and the big picture because that’s my job here and if I don’t do it nobody will.”

“Please, Barbara, you don’t have to do this.”

She looked at him, disbelieving, and shook her head. “Really? I don’t have to do this? We’ve seen how ineffective Arkham is at keeping him locked away and you batboys have already made it clear none of you are going to stop him.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You killed him once and what did Bruce do? Resuscitated him. That doesn’t sound like someone who wants him gone to me. That sounds more like someone who values his moral code over protecting the people of Gotham.”

“That was because he didn’t want me to have the Joker’s blood on my hands.”

“And the guilt of it nearly ate you alive anyway.” She turned away and rested one arm across her lap. “He should have left him dead.”

“You can’t really mean that,” Dick said, although he sounded slightly doubtful. Good. He was finally realizing how serious Barbara was about this.

“I do.” She didn’t want to play this card but she needed a way to make him see her side. So she reached for his hand and placed it on her unresponsive legs. “Feel that?” she asked in a low voice.

Dick swallowed. “Yeah.”

“I can’t. If he’d done to you what he did to me, if you had to live with this every day of your life, could you honestly tell me you would feel differently?”

He was silent.

It was a low blow and not entirely true, yes she’d lost the use of her legs but she’d gained so much more by becoming Oracle, but it succeeded in her intention of getting him to doubt whether he held the moral high ground. 

“But this isn’t just about me,” she continued, finally getting to the brunt of her argument. All the things she’d spent years turning over in her mind. “Think of all the bad things he’s done. To Jason, to Dad, to Sarah, to Duke, to all of us. And he’s going to keep doing it until he’s six feet under because _he doesn’t care_. He doesn’t feel remorse, he doesn’t play by any rules, it’s all one big game to him. And that’s why as long as he’s alive we’re going to lose. Why should we play by the rules when he doesn’t?”

Their conversation was interrupted by Batman’s logo flashing up on the computer screen. Barbara gave Dick one last look then tapped the logo, which was followed by Batman’s masked face appearing in a video call.

“I assume you’ve seen the news,” he said without preamble. The cowl meant his facial expression was unreadable, but Barbara doubted it would reveal very much even if it were uncovered.

“I have,” she replied. “And I’m going to kill him. I advise you against trying to stop me.”

“Barbara, if you do this -”

She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Don’t give me any of that ‘if you kill him you’ll be just like him’ bull. I’m doing this for all the people he hasn’t hurt yet, and all the people he has hurt so they don’t have to worry any more.”

“Just think of how much killing him will weigh on your conscience.”

“And how much has not killing him weighed on yours?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. Bruce looked down and didn’t answer. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”

“You’ll be disgracing the bat symbol and everything it stands for.” His tone wasn’t quite a shout, but it was getting there.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Bruce, but I don’t wear the bat symbol any more. You don’t get to tell me what to do. I only called out of courtesy. This man shot me, killed Jason and nearly killed Tim. How many more people have to die or get hurt before you see sense? Or is this just because you don’t want to admit you were wrong. Remember what I said to you at his funeral?”

“‘I told you’.”

“Exactly. Well, now I’m carrying it out myself since you’re too much of a coward.”

“Barbara. If you go through with this I will have to stop you.”

“You’re welcome to try. But like I said. I advise against it.” She hung up.

When she started to wheel out of the room, Dick blocked her path. “Trust me, you really don’t want to do this,” she said, her voice shaking with anger. He still didn’t move so she said, “I will run over your foot.”

He stepped to the side and his shoulders hunched with defeat. “I guess I can’t stop you.”

“No. You can’t. I’m glad you’re finally seeing sense,” she said over her shoulder on her way out.

“How do you know where to find him?”

“I have my ways. Show yourself out.”

She headed out of the Clocktower and got into her Hummer which was parked outside. Admittedly, she didn’t know for certain where she would find him but she’d created a computer program for just such a situation. Sometimes paranoia paid off. She’d learned that lesson the hard way.

She used a mixture of advanced facial recognition that also factored in height, weight and build; as well as an ambient sound sensor that would pick up on his voice and analyse any footsteps for a weight, interval and distance that matched his.

Hooking her phone to the Hummer’s computer, she began driving and watched a blinking tracker appear on the map on screen. Just where she’d guessed he might be.

“Gotcha,” she whispered.

He was at the docks, so she parked about a block away and killed the engine. Then unplugged her phone and put it in her leather jacket pocket before getting out of the Hummer.

Surprisingly, she didn’t feel any fear at the thought of confronting this man who had caused her and her family so much pain. Instead she just felt calm and sure in her decision. She didn’t think of this as taking a life, but rather sparing countless others who would be safer without him around.

Minutes later she found him standing by a crate labeled ‘toxic’ which must have been recently delivered on a boat. No doubt the ingredients for his latest Joker toxin. The sun had long since set, but the street lights were bright enough that she could recognise him wearing an Arkham guard’s uniform covered in blood.

“Joker,” she said. Her voice rang out clear in the otherwise silent dock.

He turned to look at her and staggered back in mock-surprise. “My my, look who it is.”

She kept her eyes on him and reached for the pouch beneath the seat of her chair, but this time the cool metal against her palms didn’t belong to her escrima sticks.

“And why might you be out for a roll tonight?”

“I think you know why. But just in case, let me illustrate it for you.” She pulled out the gun and aimed it squarely between his eyes.

For a second he was silent, then he burst into laughter, bending over and slapping his thigh. “Oh, this is just too good. You’re going to shoot me?”

She clicked off the safety. “Yes. I am.”

“Oh come on, red.” He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. “You’re not going to do it. What would your daddy think? Or old Batsy? I bet they both blame themselves for your condition, I bet they feel sorry for you. But after this they’ll hate you. Oh, that’s funny. There’s no way you’ll -”

She let him keep talking. His words washed over her like harmless waves. She couldn’t care less what he said, she knew he would be too preoccupied with the sound of his own voice to realise what she was doing. Which was exactly where she wanted him.

Slowly, she adjusted her aim and made sure it was accurate, then pulled the trigger.

The Joker staggered backwards as blood bloomed out of the wound, then his legs went slack and he crumpled to the floor.

“You feel that?” Barbara asked. “L1, first lumbar of the spinal cord, which that bullet just severed. Don’t worry. I missed anything vital on purpose.”

“I’ll admit...you’ve got a sense of humor,” he wheezed, bringing one pale hand up to his abdomen. His blood was mingling with the guard’s blood already on the uniform. 

“I don’t give a damn what you think of me. Like I already told you when I broke your jaw, you took nothing from me. But I guess you can’t understand that, because you don’t understand courage or love or friendship. You’re completely hollow. Joker, I pity you.”

She kept her gun trained on him while he spoke. An interesting role reversal, in that she could theoretically do whatever she wanted to him and he couldn’t run away or fight back. But her goal wasn’t cruelty. It was to make sure that he knew that someone has to lose, and today it was him.

“I refuse to let you do any more damage, after you have taken so much from so many people I care about. I just wanted you to know how it feels before I do this.”

She emptied the rest of her bullets into him until he was dead.

Then she put her gun away, tossed her hair out of her face and breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.

**Author's Note:**

> My intentions for this fic were to explore how Barbara, as Oracle, has the potential to be one of the darkest and most dangerous of the Gotham-based heroes. Bruce works based on his moral code and Dick works based on his sense of right and wrong (and by extension Bruce’s moral code), whereas Babs works based on logic and information. And even though she’s reluctant to work with killers such as Helena, when the stakes get higher she renounces this reservation and gives Hel clearance to do whatever she has to, illustrated in the Joker’s Last Laugh (which was my inspiration for this fic) when she tells Hel “We’re up against the wall on this one, Huntress. And right now I’m officially sanctioning you. So do what you have to do because we’re playing under madhouse rules this time.”
> 
> Edit: And in extenuating circumstances, she is willing to take a life in order to save many others. This was shown during No Man's Land when Barbara came to the conclusion that killing Black Mask was the only way to protect herself and everyone living in her building. She had her rifle trained on him and was about to pull the trigger, and the only reason she didn't was because Batgirl!Helena swung past her window and distracted her.


End file.
